Flooded Out in South Londonderry
Troy Caruso of Fox Run Hospitality, Ludlow spent weeks in his excavator helping to clean up severely flood-ravaged parts of town, including this landslide adjacent to Okemo Mountain Road
–Andy Chambers
Maria met Andy and Donna Chambers while they were finishing an Emergency Eats lunch at The Hub in Weston in late August. The 70-year-old couple has lived in South Londonderry for eight years. Their home along the West River was inundated on July 10.
Andy: We live right next to the fire station in South Londonderry. Our house is right above the river. Our house was totally devastated, water up the windowsills. The morning after the flood, Jon Wright of Taylor Farm walked in the door with me and looked around and said, “Oh my God” and walked out. I thought he just left. He returned and said, “You need some help” and got on the phone. He had a dumpster in our yard within 15 minutes. No exaggeration. For the next two days, we probably had 25 people here helping clean out and sort through the mess.
Donna: We were shell-shocked. But the people just knew what had to be done. Someone found me a chair and brought me a box to sort through, and someone else sat with me and helped me talk through the heirlooms and figure out what we could save. They were just so kind. We’ve gotten so much help from people we hardly knew.
Andy: A group of Baptist missionaries from North Carolina came through and volunteered in Weston, Londonderry, and Ludlow. They showed up at our doorstep and said, “Y’all need some help?”
Donna: Our clothes were soaked because our bedroom is on the first floor. People just took them away and brought them back washed and folded the next day. We had no idea where they were going.
Andy: We had to gut the place. All the sheetrock and insulation, all the kitchen, went in the dumpster. It’s so exhausting. We’re just fried every day. We come back to Londonderry every day to keep cleaning out the house and to get our meals. We’re displaced for quite
a while. We’ll try to build it back. We had flood insurance so that helps. We want to
stay here.
Donna: Andy grew up in the Dorset area and went to UVM. The flood happened on his 70th birthday. Fortunately, we had a friend who is selling his place in Manchester so it’s empty. He’s letting us use it, so we brought some of our basic necessities down there. That was a stroke of luck. But everything is off-kilter; even easy stuff like cooking is so hard because where we’re staying is like camping. I can’t even find my frying pan.
Andy: Bernie [Sanders], Peter Welch, and Becca Balint came down to Londonderry on Saturday, July 15 and were at our house. They did a tour of Weston and Londonderry. It wasn’t just a photo op. They really wanted to know what was happening. Becca’s daughter was at Farm & Wilderness Camp in Plymouth during the flood.
Donna: We heard about the Emergency Eats program through Neighborhood Connections. They gave us vouchers.
Andy: Having access to these meals is so helpful. We’re just so tired.
Donna: And it’s not just the food. These places make us feel like royalty. They’re so kind to us. I want to be there for other folks if it happens again. If you haven’t been affected by a flood or some natural disaster, it’s impossible to know how hard it is to get through this all. You don’t just get over it in a few days.
